Sunday, June 21, 2015

Seattle

My "fairy godmother" friend Marite - so-named because she babysat me from a few weeks old and then for many years, and is beloved - has been showing me and Theo the top of the "dog-friendly" side of Seattle. Yesterday I got in a little later than expected - lots of traffic! -but we caught the "tail end" of the Fremont Solstice parade - famous for its painted nude cyclists. About ten years ago a few bicyclists showed up naked - with body paint. When the police tried to arrest them everyone complained...the next year there were 800 naked painted cyclists and now its a yearly event and its allowed. Fun! Most are painted so well that you have to do a double-take to see they are nude…

Gotta love Marite - this is the first thing she shows me!

From there we went to a nice park by the Hiram Chittenden boat locks, and saw a salmon bridge, but alas the wrong time of year to see the Salmon making their way up. We enjoyed the cool green park.

She has also researched all the dog friendly restaurants nearby, so we had a nice Thai dinner outside last night.Today we went back to Fremont to see the art booths and the art car blowout. WE parked on the other side of the river and walked across a bridge into Fremont. Here's the sign that greets you on the bridge:

Its a little hard to see the last sentence - it says "Turn Your Watch Ahead 5 Minutes"

Some of the old VW vans were pretty elaborately decorated! Gives me ideas about Mz. Mac.

From there we headed over to Pike's Place - the famous market. Theo is starting to get the hang of this city sight-seeing - even put his nose out the window on the drive to Pike's.

It was crowded, of course, but insider Marite whisked us up some stairs to a restaurant with a balcony to have lunch and people watch in comfort, with a glass of chilled white wine of course!

Marite at lunch

Me at lunch - looks like I'm being healthy with water, but that's T's water - and my empty beer glass…

View from our table - far above the maddening crowd!

Now we are back home - Theo really likes her fenced back yard's shade. He's found the spot where the breeze flows through and where he can keep on eye on everything.